Chapter 2
Graduation day! It was the day for me and two of my foster sisters, so mayhem at the Crenshaw house, but in the best way. I was ready, my hair in a sleek updo that everyone said makes me look like a pin-up model. Bright red lips, smoky eyes. Rose told me I look twenty-five instead of nineteen. I feel like I’m older, anyway; always have, probably partly due to being almost on my own for the better part of a year at nine years old.
After Mom died, Dad would leave me alone for hours at a time, sometimes overnight, while he nipped out to run his errands. I learned how to make simple meals at that age, to cook and clean up after myself. I even paid the electric bill once after finding a disconnection notice taped to our apartment door. It was a rare occasion that my dad’s wallet had been full of cash, so while he slept off a bender, I walked the three blocks to the bank and paid it.
Social services hadn’t looked too kindly on that explanation, though when I was interviewed and told them I could get myself off to school, make my own breakfast, pack my own lunch, and that I’d even paid bills at the bank with money from Daddy’s card games.
Yeah, that had gone over so well that they hauled me into care. It didn’t help that they found me at home alone with almost no food in the fridge other than some dried out Chinese take-out, but a case of beer in the fridge and nothing but some saltines and beer nuts in the cupboard. The green mat had still been on the dining room table from a poker game Dad had hosted two nights before. It was littered with crushed beer cans and overflowing ashtrays. He’d always told me to stay in my locked room during those games and touch nothing on that table if his poker stuff was left out. The games were often on school nights.
Dad turned up drunk in the middle of the social services meeting and blubbered like a baby. Mom’s death ruined him, and I felt like I had to take care of him for her. Lord knew he couldn’t take care of me. I guessed that was what made me an old soul, the fact that I had to be.
Anyway, here I was, wishing my parents could see me get handed my diploma, graduating on the honor roll. I doubted Dad would make it. Rose, Cal, and Susie (my social worker) would all be there for me and that was enough.
After the ceremony, we’d have a celebratory meal at Rose and Cal’s and there was a school dance planned after that. My ex-boyfriend Nick had been lingering all week and I wasn’t looking forward to seeing him tonight but knew he’d be there.
I’d dumped him a month ago, because I found out he was selling drugs from his gas station job. His customers would buy gas and when they came in to pay, he’d slip them dope. I wanted no part of that. I had no desire to build my future with a guy who would put his future in jeopardy. He was a loser. I didn’t like to think of my dad as a loser but in reality, that’s what he was. I wasn’t about to get tied down with a loser of a boyfriend, too.
Nick was a twenty-two-year-old gorgeous, long-haired, tattooed, and leather jacket-wearing bad boy. I was attracted to the look and the swagger of bad boys for some reason, but when it all came down to it, they’d get dumped as soon as they showed me their true bad boy colors. While I was attracted to them like a moth to a flame, it didn’t last. I didn’t want to waste my time on someone going nowhere but downhill.
As I got dressed for grad, I thought about the guy that had come into the ice cream parlor I worked at the other day. He came in while I was working my last shift and he was well-dressed, as sexy as a movie star, and carried himself with confidence. He was so tall and strong-looking. A hundred percent grown-up male and very different from Nick. Older. Somewhere near thirty, and he gave me tummy flutters like I’d never had before. What would it be like to date a man who oozed sex appeal and maturity?
As me and my foster sisters got ready for our big day, they were giddy and giggling. I was deep in thought about the guy I’d been thinking of as the ice cream parlor hottie. I barely stopped thinking about him the past two days and nights. But, as that had been my last day at that job the chances of seeing him again were small. He flirted with me, but I behaved like a deer in the headlights. I wished I was older, more confident, and that I’d given him my phone number. I was so over guys that were like Nick.
I knew Nick was trying to get my attention because he knew that tomorrow I’d be moving into my own apartment. He wanted alone time with me. He and I had done the alone thing plenty of times and I didn’t need to go down that road again. It wasn’t exactly symbiotic.
Nick wanted to attend the graduation ceremony, but I only had a limited number of tickets to give out and since I had no one but Dad, I’d given my extra tickets to the other girls who had guests.
I was ready for new things. A new place, college in the fall, and new opportunities. Maybe a new guy, too. One who was ready to be a man, not a boy living in a one-bedroom apartment shared with two other guys who rotated using the bedroom when they had girls over (with the never-innovative sock on the doorknob as the clue that the room was “in use”. Gross.).
We’d done it in there once and… never again. We’d done it a few times in his car, but it was certainly not very fulfilling! Neither the car nor that bedroom had been cleaned in months. He undoubtedly saw my upcoming apartment as an ‘in’. Wrong. He’d already texted me today, trying to get me to agree to ‘talk’ later tonight.
* * *
As I walked up on the podium to receive my diploma, I had the surprise of my life. Dad was in the audience, a big smile on his face. He was seated beside Rose, who was chatting softly to him while snapping pictures of me. Nick was sitting directly behind my dad, dressed up and smiling at me, too. I avoided his gaze, tried not to think about how handsome he looked. Looks weren’t everything. Why was he even here? I bet Ruby found him a ticket; she’d been trying to get us back together for days like it was her mission in life.
After the ceremony was over, I was in the school’s courtyard for photos, and Dad rushed to me. He looked good. I’d only ever seen him in a suit once, at Mom’s funeral, and this was that same suit. He had his dirty-blond hair gelled back and he smelled like expensive cologne. Seeing him like this reminded me of how he sometimes was before Mom died. His green eyes sparkled. He was good-looking for his age. Everyone said I had his eyes. He’d never been perfect, but we did things together. He taught me to cook, I’d hang out with him while he tinkered with his car. When I was small, he’d hold me high in the air with an airplane ride to bed. He’d read bedtime stories with such effort and emotion, doing different voices for every character. He wasn’t the perfect father or husband before she died but after she died, he was a shell of a man who tried to drink and gamble away his pain. Seeing him here today, trying for me, I felt a burst of affection for him.
He swung me around in a giant hug, making me squeal. “Athena! I’m so proud. You look all grown up. Look at you. Someone take our picture!” He called out to the rest of our group and Rose hurried over with her camera.
Susie, my social worker, eyed my dad warily. I knew she’d lost patience with him over the years. Getting me to agree to be a ward of the courts made her life so much easier because she didn’t have to continually try to reach him to find out what was what with him, to get him involved in decisions that needed to be made, and so forth. When he lost his parental rights, it had been eleven months since he’d made contact. He always managed to miss birthdays.
It hurt that he could go that length of time without checking on me, leaving others to raise me. It hurt, but I wasn’t the sort lash out about it. I always just thought of him as broken. Who wouldn’t be broken after finding their wife dead in a tub with slit wrists?
I was supposed to have been picked up from school after a field trip that required parents to pick up the kids late since we were back at 7:00 at night. Nobody showed up. I sat in the principal’s office for hours while they tried to find someone to pick me up. The principal had been huffy and snippy, too, clearly with plans for the evening that had to be canceled due to this poor little neglected girl who hadn’t been picked up from school.
Finally, my Aunt Carol had come along and brought me to her home. She didn’t give me an explanation, treating me like kids should be seen and not heard. She did, however, not even try to lower her voice to stop me from overhearing her on the phone as she told someone she was stuck watching me for the evening because my father was a wreck, mourning his dead wife who’d killed herself. What a way for me to find out.
She never bothered with me all these years, just wrote me off. Mom hadn’t had any family step up either. I heard she had an older brother, but it seemed she was a bit of a black sheep with her family because I never met anyone from that side and no one sought me out after she died.
* * *
So, here Dad was, all smiles for the camera, looking well-fed, well-groomed, and yet there was a weird aura about him, something in his eyes, a nervousness in his laugh. He seemed off, like there was something shifty going on. He kept checking his phone and looking around suspiciously. When everyone had gotten their fill of camera flashes in their eyes, Rose tried to corral everyone so we could go back to her house where a big buffet and gifts were waiting.
“Please join us, Gregory,” she said to my dad.
“I’d love to!” he beamed. “Tia, ride with me. We can catch up on the way.”
Did he have something to tell me? It’d been ages since I’d seen him and while I was happy he was here, I knew something wasn’t quite right.
He had a decent enough car, surprisingly. We drove through a coffee shop drive-thru for Dad to get a coffee and me to get an iced cappuccino and then we parked so Dad could get out and have a cigarette first, saying he wouldn’t smoke in the car with me.
“Thanks so much for coming, Dad.”
“Like I’d miss it!”
He gave me an are you kidding look. As if he hadn’t missed most other milestones in my life so far.
“What’s new, then? You working?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been working at an auto parts place for about seven months. I do parts counter, a few minor repairs. Got a nice apartment. Got myself a nice girlfriend, too. You’ll like her. Sadie. She’s a schoolteacher. Teaches kindergarten. This is her car.”
“Really? That’s awesome.” It’d been the longest he’d held down a job for ages and this was the first relationship he’d ever told me about. He evidently knew what was going on with me already; I’d filled him in with my Facebook message where I’d invited him to come to the grad ceremony.
“Something off, though, Dad? You seem stressed.”
He nodded quickly and lifted the lid off his coffee and took a sip. “Yeah, we need to talk.”
I frowned. “Okay…”
He sat at a picnic table outside the coffee shop and picked at a loose thread on his suit pants. “I’m in some trouble. Chickens coming home to roost, sort of thing.”
My heart lurched. “What kind of trouble?”
He let out a heavy sigh. “I have old debts from when I was gambling. I haven’t gambled in a long time, Tia. I go to a support group. The debt was sold to someone high up in organized crime, someone who hates my guts and has a vendetta from years back. He’s decided to make life… difficult.”
I nodded, urging him to continue, feeling dread spread through my gut.
“I need to figure this out, find a way to get them paid. They’ve already given me an extension, but they want a marker. I just need a few days to sort this out. I was hoping you could help me.”
“How? How could I help you?” I didn’t have any money. Well, $248 in my savings account from my job at the ice cream parlor, but that was it.
“You need to be my marker,” he said, resigned.
“Your what?”
“Yeah. I know it’s not ideal, but I have a plan to clear it up and then there won’t be anything else. This is the last loose end from my old life, Tia. I’m really sorry to drag you into this, but I have no choice.”
“Dad…” I began.
I noticed a black SUV pull in beside us. The passenger window rolled down and a guy in the passenger seat wearing dark sunglasses eyed us.
“Tia, it’s just for a few days. I have a plan, I…” He glanced over his shoulder and then his shoulders slumped.
“Dad, you can’t expect me to…who are these people? What on earth have you gotten yourself into?”
Dad’s face took on a look of desperation. “Sweet pea, I’m sorry. I’ve been such a fuck up.”
He hadn’t called me that since I was little, since before Mom died.
“You need to go with these guys. Trust me. I’ll make this better. It’ll be better.”
“It’s my high school fucking graduation!” I shrieked, looking to the SUV. Was this them?
Dad blanched. I’ve never sworn at him, never raised my voice at him. I’ve always treated him like he’s fragile. The front passenger and rear passenger doors of the black SUV opened and burly men dressed in expensive suits looked out at us.
“Problem, O’Connor?” One in the back seat asked in a gravelly voice.
“Naw, no. Not at all. Not at all. We just need one minute.” Dad was like a stuttering fool. “Tia, please,” his eyes pleaded with me.
“Dad.” I folded my arms. I could not believe he came to my grad to set me up to be his “marker”. This was the only reason he came!
Burly guy from the front passenger seat lifted his shades off. “We need to go, O’Connor.”
I took a step back as the two of them got out, leaving their doors opened, revealing a big Black dude in the back and a younger, pissed-off but hot blond guy in a suit in the driver’s seat.
Dad leaned forward and took my hands in his. His face had a look of desperation that made my scalp prickle. “They’ll kill me,” he whispered.
What the…?
What would make him use me as a marker? Did he think they wouldn’t kill me? Did he think they wouldn’t hurt me? How much money did he owe these guys and how would he even pay them off?
He’d let me down countless times. In the early days of foster care, he’d promise that his life was almost together enough to gain custody again. He’d promise to take me places, buy me things – I never needed or wanted things, but he always tossed promises around and he never ever kept them. Why would I believe him now? Why would he put me at risk and even make this an option?
“Just hang tight. They’ll keep you comfortably in a luxury hotel suite or something like that. You’ll be fine. Look at it like a little getaway.”
I tilted my head at my father, dumbfounded. This couldn’t be real. Back at Rose and Cal’s, they were waiting for me. There was a big, beautiful cake congratulating me, Mia, and Bethany for graduating.
Ruby, her brother Connor, the other girls, and everyone’s friends and some relatives were all there. There was a table filled with everyone’s favorite foods. There were graduation gifts. Tonight, there was a dance and all my friends would be there.
He was ruining this; ruining a pivotal day that I’d worked so hard for. I was a nearly straight A student. I was on the motherfucking honor roll! I’d beaten the odds despite my screwed-up childhood with a loser father and a mom lost to suicide. I didn’t deserve this. A combination of pain and rage rose in me.
“Athena, sweet pea; trust me.” His eyes implored me.
“How much do you owe? Do you even have a way to pay them back?”
He nodded. “It’s not out of my reach, and I have a plan.”
“It must be pretty bad for them to want human collateral, Dad. What’ll they do to me if you don’t pay?”
He put his hands on my shoulders and said, “I just need you to trust me.”
I held my breath. Burly man number one and burly man number two seemed like they were staring me down from behind their Men-In-Black sunglasses.
I was about to open my mouth to say No, no way was I agreeing to this, but then the blond driver got out of the vehicle and rounded it.
He strode to the passenger side where this standoff was happening, took my elbow and ushered me into the SUV, his mouth in a tight line. Burly guy number two was standing by the opened the back door. It happened so fast that I was in the vehicle before I had a chance to protest.
“In!” Blond guy was dressed like he was ready for a GQ photoshoot. He blurted this at the goons with a grumbled, “For fuck sakes” then he gave Dad a chilling death stare.
Before I had a chance to react, angry hot guy got back into the driver’s seat and we were pulling away from Dad, who was standing with his hands in his pockets watching the SUV pull away.
I was sandwiched in between backseat burly guy two and the scary-looking Black dude. I glanced over my shoulder out the window to see Dad take a sip of his coffee and dial a number on his phone. Backseat burly guy passed the guy on the other side of me my seatbelt and he fastened it for me.
I frowned. Dad had looked so flippant, so nonchalant as he dialed that number and sipped his coffee. What on earth? I was so flabbergasted I couldn’t even think straight.
Half an hour ago, I was graduating from high school.
Now I was some kind of marker for my father’s gambling debt. Now I was in an SUV with a bunch of scary looking men heading, where?
No one was saying anything. Nobody even looked at me. The blond guy was radiating a pissed-off vibe as he drove, and there was a sports event of some kind on the radio. I gulped hard and stared straight ahead, saying a silent prayer.
It’d been a couple of weeks since Pop had told me about Tia O’Connor. A long couple of weeks.
I’d given the matter thought, like I’d promised him. In fact, I thought about it more than I’d care to admit because the more thought I gave it, the more it made sense. Getting married meant getting handed the keys to all of it. It meant I wouldn’t be second guessed, it meant I’d be in total control.
The idea of owning a woman did things to me. I couldn’t deny that I’d been thinking about the fact that in addition to being in control of the business, I’d be in control of her. Owning this girl, having her available for my every whim, it was stirring something in me. And did I have whims.
Something about the idea of a girl who was mine, a girl who probably hadn’t already had dozens of sexual partners – it appealed to me on a deep level, a level so deep I was having trouble shaking what felt like cravings; the things I was imagining doing to her. Naw, I wasn’t deprived but I certainly was depraved.
I’d dreamt about her almost every night since seeing her picture. Filthy dreams. I woke up every night a few times as a rule, anyway, but since seeing her picture I’d woken up sweaty, with a hard-on, after delicious dreams of her across my knee getting spanked and fingered, dreams of her wrists tied to my headboard, dreams of her on her knees in front of me, taking my cock into that gorgeous mouth with her hands tied behind her back with one of my belts.
It got even worse after I managed to gather intel about her because in addition to the way she looked, she had other qualities I liked. I decided to check out the goods myself, in person, because I’d put one of my men on detail to watch her and report her activities. After a week, he came to me with the report and some photos.
I’d probably never defined what my ‘type’ was before this, but I now knew. She had a smokin’ hot body and though she was younger than I’d normally go for, she didn’t look her age. I knew where she lived, where she worked, where she spent her time, who her friends were, and I knew what sort of person she was.
My man had taken candid photos of her at school, at play in the pool in her foster parents’ back yard (in a barely-there string bikini). My cock twitched at the thought of her in that tiny bikini. Her silky, chestnut, shampoo commercial hair fell three quarters of the way down her back with bangs that swept gently across her forehead, and I’d been imagining wrapping the long length of her hair around my fist and pulling her head toward my cock. I imagined taking handfuls of it while I did her from behind.
She had the sort of lips women paid to upgrade to. While looking at her file, my jaw tightened at the fact that my man had taken this photo of her, looked at her in those scraps of material. I felt like a possessive prick, wanting to knock him out for even looking at her. She was semi-sexually active but not slutty. She was on birth control, but had no boyfriend for the past month or so.
Earl told me there was a punk ex-boyfriend sniffing around, trying to get her attention. She was giving him the brush-off. I had video of him trying to talk to her over a fence while she was in that bikini. She seemed like she could be a cock tease. She had a bit of sass, but not enough to come across like a bitch. No, it was just enough to make me want to bring her to heel.
The girl hadn’t had it easy; her old man was a piece of shit, by the sounds of it. She worked part-time at an ice cream shop near the foster home and did some volunteer work at the animal shelter as well as at a nearby old folks’ home. She wasn’t a typical nineteen-year-old girl out to party and spend, and that appealed to me, too.
After way too much attention spent looking at videos of her and flipping through a file of photos and general intel, I decided to stroll in and size up the potential chemistry in person. Regardless of what she looked like, I needed to know if there would be any sort of spark before moving forward.
Yeah, most would say I should just let her go, let her go live her life. If I was a nice guy that’s what I’d do. There were girls out there that I’d already been with who’d be more than happy to wear my ring and sleep in my bed. But I guess I’m not a nice guy. The thing was that Pop had a claim on her so either I took the gift, or he’d give her to someone else. Either way, she was now Ferrano family property. That was my justification, as twisted as that was. If I had to get married, she might as well become mine.
Yeah, I know; I guess I’m not even a little bit of a good guy.
* * *
Bells jingled over the door to the small store as I walked in. Music played and it had a fifties diner theme going with a long white counter flanked by a dozen or so red and chrome stools and half a dozen little red tables, some for two, some for four, in front of a big window that looked out to the busy street. She was working alone; the shop was empty except for a prepubescent kid playing on his handheld game system at the counter while nursing a drink and making an annoying slurping sound as it was obviously just a few ice cubes rattling around in the bottom of the cup. I gave him the ‘scram’ stare and jerked my chin toward the door. The kid gulped, grabbed his skateboard, and took off.
I stood at the counter and watched her. She was up on a footstool stocking a shelf above her head with small boxes of ice cream cones. She was humming along to the song on the radio, her arms over her head making her tank top ride up, showing her bare lower back and two sexy dimples at the base of her spine. My pants suddenly felt tight as I looked at the juicy heart-shaped ass popping from those tight low-rider jeans. And the knowledge that it was mine? In that moment, with that knowledge, I had to take a deep breath to stop myself from taking her right then and there.
She turned around and smiled at me expectantly. Then she instantly blushed. Yeah, I had that effect on women. Nope, she didn’t look like a teenager in person, either. She looked closer to mid-twenties. Her pictures didn’t even do justice; she was fucking beautiful.
“Can I help you?” she beamed and quickly moistened her full pink lips with the tip of her tongue, eying me in a way that I liked. It wasn’t the look of a woman hunting man prey, which was a complete turn-off for me. No, this was shyness and anticipation. This was a girl tingling at the idea that the guy in front of her could be remotely interested in her. Clearly, she had no clue how beautiful she was. And obviously, she liked what she saw when she looked at me.
“I hope so.” I smirked at her.
She climbed down and straightened her black tank top, pulling it down slightly to cover her midriff but resulting in revealing just the scalloped tops of the cups of a lace black bra and (probably unintentionally) giving me an even better view of her cleavage. Great rack. Full C-cup, maybe even a D.
“What do you recommend?”
She flushed even pinker and it was clear she’d seen where my eyes had landed. “Umm, we have ice cream, cold drinks. If you want something hot I can do coffee, hot chocolate, cappuccino…” She trailed off.
Hot. Yeah, I’d like something hot.
“Surprise me,” I told her.
She chewed her lip shyly. “Well, what do you like?”
“I see plenty that I like. What do you like?” I asked, widening my eyes at her and then trailed my gaze from her eyes to her mouth, down to her hips, and then back up. I did this slowly, being very obvious that I was checking her out.
“Hmm.” She smiled at me and eyed me up and down, too. “Hungry or thirsty?”
Mm.
“Hungry,” I said.
“We don’t have much for food, really. Popcorn, nachos, ice cream?” she suggested.
“What flavor?” I asked her.
“There’s a list up there.” She motioned behind herself.
“What’s your favorite flavor?” I asked.
“Call me weird but I really just love plain old vanilla.” She shrugged.
I almost laughed at her. My face split into a grin. I bet she did. I bet vanilla was all she’d been exposed to so far.
“You are weird,” I said.
She wrinkled her nose at me and fuck, but it was adorable.
“Vanilla, when there are so many flavors to choose from?” I drummed my fingertips on the counter, staring into the ice cream freezer, “Bah, vanilla sounds like a good start.” I sat on a stool.
“One scoop or two?” she asked, flushing even pinker. I wondered if she picked up on the double entendre.
“Two.” I was eyeing her luscious round tits.
“Cup or cone?” she asked.
“Cone.” I raised a brow.
“Sugar cone?”
“Oh yeah,” I said low and gave her another grin.
She gulped, fumbled, and got the ice cream for me. Then she put a cherry right in the middle of the top scoop. A fucking cherry. I could’ve come in my pants right then and there.
“That’s three bucks,” she said, holding it out to me with both hands demurely, but something flirty in those eyes. Gorgeous eyes. Jade green, long and thick black lashes.
Oh, it’d be a lot more than three bucks. I could buck all fucking night if I had her in my bed.
I put a twenty in her hand, then grabbed her wrist for a second before she could turn to the cash register. I told her to keep the change and then wiggled the tip of my tongue against the cherry and winked at her before letting go of her wrist. Then, I walked out.
I used the tip of my tongue to scoop the cherry into my mouth and dropped the cone in the trash bin outside the shop and glanced in the window. She was staring at me, mouth open. After a few flicks of the tongue behind my teeth I pulled out the stem and showed her that it was now knotted and then put it between my teeth, winked, and got into my car and drove directly to my father’s office, tonguing that stem while I drove.
I didn’t knock; I strolled right in, interrupting a phone call and ignoring the four other people sitting there with him at a conference table, one of them my brother.
Pop looked up at me and put his hand over the mouthpiece of the phone.
“Tia O’Connor? Make it happen,” I told him, dropping the knotted cherry stem into the trash can beside the table.
“On it,” he answered with a huge smile and then lifted his chin at Dario, my brother. Dare got up and cracked his knuckles.
“Let’s go,” Dare said to Bruce, Gus, and Earl, who were all sitting there with him.
Later that night, Dare called me and told me he’d visited Greg O’Connor and told him the score. He walked in and told him Tom Ferrano was calling in his debt. If he didn’t have cash on the spot he was to hand over his daughter Tia, that Tia would be presented to Thomas Ferrano Jr. as potential marriage material and that if marriage didn’t happen she’d remain Ferrano property in order to clear his debt. Dario had brought muscle with him, expecting resistance even though Pop told him not to bother.
O’Connor hadn’t even seemed all that surprised, according to Dare. Said he knew that my father wasn’t done with him yet and had a feeling this day would come. He said my father had warned a few weeks prior that Tia might be the payback for what’d happened back in the day, whenever and whatever that was.
O’Connor told my brother it was almost a relief that the day had come, and that Tom had chosen to handle things this way because he’d been carrying around the worry for years. What the fuck? Piece of shit. Whatever the beef was between him and my pop, he wasn’t gonna even try to barter or fight for his daughter? What a sorry excuse for a father, for a man.
Of course, she was already mine in my head, so there was nothing he could do even if he had the money to pay the debt, but that the man wasn’t even trying? He’d get zero respect from me.
Dare thought it was funny that Pop had done this to get me married off and said he was surprised that I was going through with it. I shrugged it off, told him it was a means to an end. We joked about the fact that he’d be next. I’d seen Dare date plenty; he got a lot of female attention and had even been engaged already, but she’d broken his heart and in return he’d broken the jaw of the guy she was fucking as well as bankrupted the guy’s family’s business. Since then he was about as interested in settling down as I was.
I saw Pop the next evening at dinner at his house with him, my two sisters, their families, and Pop’s wife, wife number four if I hadn’t lost count yet, and Pop told me on the side that he’d told O’Connor years back that he’d have his daughter someday. I tried to ask questions but got the brush off.
Why that son of a bitch didn’t leave the country to protect his little girl was beyond me. I mean, we had reach across borders, but if you’d at least tried to get out of his line of sight maybe you’d have somewhat of a chance of getting off his radar. I knew O’Connor had left his kid to rot in foster homes right under my pop’s nose while he put cocaine up his own nose, while he repeatedly bet all his earnings on the horses and in card games, while he paid next to no attention to his kid whatsoever. Knowing Pop was threatening his little girl, how could he stay around here?
I didn’t know what the beef between Pop and O’Connor was about, but it had to be a pretty big beef for Pop to let a wound fester for years and then decide that the payment would come in the form of about 120 pounds of flesh. For whatever the reason was, I’d be getting that flesh in my hands right after she graduated from high school. It was all arranged. Dare would pick her up and deliver her to me.
The SUV stopped in front of a gatehouse and when the gates opened, continued up a semicircle driveway to park in front of a gorgeous Tudor-style house. A mansion, really. I clutched my purse close and when the SUV emptied, the Black, scary dude reached for my hand and helped me out. He gave me a little smile.
Hm, not so scary, really. Now that he’d smiled at me, he reminded me a little of Michael Clarke Duncan. The guy from the Green Mile isn’t scary, just misunderstood. Maybe this guy wasn’t scary. The other two were scary, though. Burly Number Two from the back seat looked a tad like Lou Ferrigno, the Incredible Hulk. Burly One looked like a total criminal – Sopranos or Godfather henchman type – angry dark eyes, uni-brow, deep acne scars on his cheeks. All three of them were imposing-looking men. The blond driver in the front looked little less scary, but his attitude was scarier than all the other guys. He was in maybe his mid-20s and while he was extremely good-looking, wearing an expensive suit, he looked pissed off and impatient. He seemed like the one in charge.
The Michael Clarke Duncan-looking dude finished helping me out of the SUV and blond angry hot guy motioned for me to follow him. I did, dread filling me.
I was on a gated property with several big, scary guys and I’d bet money they all carried guns. The blond guy led me through a big foyer into a room down a long hallway and rapped on a door.
“Come in,” a man answered from the other side.
The three men waited in the hall while the blond guy opened the door and signaled for me to walk ahead of him. My heart felt like it was in my throat.
I was inside a large office with a man sitting behind a large executive-style desk. He had salt and pepper hair and light brown eyes. He was fit and handsome for his age, kind of George Clooney-ish. He wore a suit and had an air about him that said businessman or hot shot lawyer. But Dad said he was mafia, a mobster.
A guy in a mansion with all these thugs or whatever was buying debts from bookies? It didn’t add up. How big could Dad’s debt actually be? Who would front him more than a few hundred dollars on a poker game, knowing he wasn’t capable of earning much more than the minimum wage?
“Athena, I’m Thomas Ferrano. Call me Tom for now. Please sit.” He motioned toward a chair in front of his desk.
I sat. His name sounded familiar. His face sort of seemed familiar, too.
“Aren’t you lovely? You graduated high school today, I hear. Congratulations.”
I stared at him. Words won’t form on my lips.
His gaze narrowed. “No need to be rude.”
I shook my head, “I’m not trying to be rude. I’m just a bit overwhelmed. Thank you. For the congrats.”
He nodded, curtly. “Dario, get a bottle of water for Athena.”
Angry hot blond guy nodded and left the room.
“So, I take it your father filled you in? Why don’t you tell me what he said to you, ah? He used to have an unfortunate habit of leaving out important facts. Maybe he still does.”
Boy, did I know that.
Blond guy, Dario, returned quickly with a bottle of water and handed it to me, then left the office.
“Um thanks.” I took a sip. “I haven’t seen much of my father in years. He turned up today at my high school graduation and told me I had to be a marker for a few days so he could get money together to clear up a gambling debt.”
Thomas Ferrano laughed. “Interesting spin.”
My heart plummeted. Spin? If that wasn’t the truth, what was?
“Isn’t that the truth?” I asked, starting to tremble.
“Not exactly. Your father owes me a rather large debt, one I’m not sure he can ever actually repay.” He looked at me expectantly.
“Why am I here, then?”
“Let’s say you’ve been drafted.” He smirked.
Huh?
“My son Tommy needs to get married. He hasn’t found Miss Perfect yet. Your father owes me a great deal. I’ve agreed to consider writing off the debt if my son decides you’re Miss Perfect.”
I started to laugh. “Am I being punk’d?”
“Excuse me?” he asked and I knew, then, that he was serious.
“I don’t understand.” The room began to slowly turn. I was white-knuckled, gripping the arms of the chair I sat in.
“Simple, really. As of now you are property of the Ferrano family.”
If my chin wasn’t touching the floor right now, it must be awfully close. Had I been transported back to the dark ages? I didn’t know what to say. I was totally and utterly gob smacked.
“So, I’ve arranged for you to be transported to Tommy’s home. There, you two can get acquainted and go from there, see if this is an amicable arrangement for him.”
For him? For him?
“What?” I can’t fathom this. “No.”
Don’t I have to agree to this? I don’t agree to this.He raised his index finger and his eyes narrowed. He took on a much more menacing look. “Listen carefully. This meeting, the one between you and my son, if it doesn’t go well it won’t bode well for your father and it may not bode well for you, either. We have many options available for where you could go. I think you’d prefer ending up with my son over the alternatives. We’re a wealthy and powerful family so you could be in a much worse position, believe me. I’d advise you to cooperate. You’re in an enviable position, Athena. I’ll be seeing you soon. Tommy’s brother will drive you. Dario!”
Enviable? Was this man whacked in the head?
The door opened and Dario popped his head in.
“Take Athena to your brother. Athena, don’t be difficult. I wouldn’t advise it. It was nice to see you again. You’ve grown up to be a lovely girl. An almost dead ringer for your mother.”
He gave me a big smile. My blood ran cold.
My mother? This man knew my mother? See me again? When had he seen me before? This man was scary. The brother was scary. Their thugs or whatever they were --- really scary. Was I in the middle of the fricking dark ages or what? An arranged marriage to a mafia kingpin’s son to save my father’s life? This was nuts! If I was asleep, I wanted to wake up right now!
Dario led me back out to the SUV and two of the other guys got in, too. One had apparently opted out of this leg of the drive. They thought they needed muscle to get me from point A to point B, evidently. Were they afraid I’d try to run? I didn’t know what the heck I was dealing with here so no, I wasn’t about to run now before sussing things out. I didn’t want to end up dead. I didn’t want Dad to end up dead.
Did Dad really sell me out like this? I mean, he was a lousy father, for sure, but did he really sell me to the mafia in exchange for payment of his old gambling debts? Not a marker. Not temporarily. Sold, like chattel. Married off. No way. He was capable of a lot, but this? Surely not. This was North America and the 21st century. This kind of stuff didn’t happen.
I combed through my memory. The name Ferrano rang bells. Was he known in the city as a mafia guy? Where had I heard his name from?
What might’ve been about ten minutes later, the SUV was pulling up in front of another set of gates. The drive had been quiet, more sports, I figured out was soccer, on the radio and no talking other than a “Woo” and a “Yes!” in unison from angry driver, err Dario, and burly guy number two (number one had opted out) on what must’ve been a goa. It’d all been white noise to me due to my state of mind.
“Wait here,” Dario told me after getting past the gate and then he walked into the house alone. Me and the muscle sat in awkward silence.
My purse started ringing my ringtone for Ruby.
“Hand it over,” Burly two ordered gruffly, and I knew he meant business.
I took my cell phone out and handed it to him.
Dare was inside my doorway, “I come bearing gifts. I deliver your bride.”
He gave a gallant bow and then snickered. I’d just gotten home and had known they’d be along soon.
I rolled my eyes. “Fucking Pop.”
He laughed, leaning against the wall. “She’s a looker, bro. He did good.”
“Don’t look at my bride.” I punched his shoulder playfully. “And just you wait. I’m sure he’s lining up someone for you to marry next.”
“Since you’ll be head of the family, I think that means you get to pick, doesn’t it?”
I threw my head back and let out an evil laugh. “Oh yeah. And just you wait!”
“I’ll go get her,” he told me, grinning. He knew I’d have his back. Truth be told, he couldn’t wait for Pop to head out to pasture. Dare and I had plans for taking the family business to the next level together. We were half-brothers and five years apart, but we’d grown up together and were alike in many ways. He was the only other person I’d 100% trust to have my back. I didn’t even trust my father 100%.
I didn’t think he’d set out to do harm to me intentionally, but I knew that we were all pawns, to a degree, and that his idea of having my back and Dare’s idea of the same would diverge.
“Put her in my bedroom and lock the door,” I said and wiggled my eyebrows. Then I walked into my office to tie up a few loose ends before the big reveal. I didn’t know much about her yet but, from what I did know so far, I guessed that she wouldn’t have taken the news of today lightly. I was anticipating, even hoping for some resistance and looking fucking forward to it.
The guy with my phone gave it to Dario when he came back to the SUV.
“Let’s go,” Dario said to me with a chin jerk.
I couldn’t run. The gate was shut. Would I run, though, if it wasn’t? Thomas Ferrano threatened me, pretty much saying Dad was a goner if I didn’t cooperate, and maybe me, too. But, what would happen to me here?
I followed Dario into a large house, feeling a little shaky and a lot queasy. I couldn’t help but notice the architectural details of the place. It looked like a pretty hacienda, had an orange terra cotta roof, white parging with archways. There were loads of flowers everywhere. Climbing vines, overflowing baskets.
Inside the front door was a foyer that opened to a staircase directly to my left and a long hallway under an arch to my right. This was the kind of house Mom and I used to talk about having, a hacienda and beautiful gardens. It was her dream to live in a house like this and it’d become my dream, too. I shivered at the thought of my mom, unable to fathom how she’d feel about all this.
“Follow me,” Dario led the way up the stairs, down a long hall with several closed doors to a set of double doors, and then opened them both and walked in. I followed inside.
“Bag?” he motioned.
I hesitated.
“I’ll give your bag and phone to Tommy. He’ll decide when you can have them back.”
I was trembling. I couldn’t help it. I was in a big master suite with a king-size bed, about to be left for someone who thought they had a claim on me. I was supposed to be at a party celebrating the end of my childhood and the beginning of life as an adult. An adult with choices, a future, independence.
This was not that. This was something else. This something else was bad. Possibly very bad. He nodded politely, reached over to the bedside table and picked up a cordless phone, and then he left with it. I let out a big breath, as if I’d been holding it in for hours. I had to keep my cool somehow. If I had a freak out, there was no telling what would happen to me. If I kept my cool I could suss everything out and then make a calculated decision about what to do.
I surveyed the room. It was nice, luxurious, even. Soft dove gray walls, big dark wood furniture, lots of leather, exposed beam ceilings with ceiling fans. It didn’t really match the hacienda theme outside, and I wouldn’t say it was my taste, but it was nice. There was a big difference from this room to the kind of room I was used to. The small room I’d shared with Bethany was small, containing two twin loft beds with desks underneath, drawers for stairs. Here was a room I was expected to share with a man. I cringed, looking at the bed, fearing what I’d be expected to do. I knew nothing about this Tommy. All I knew was that I was in a pickle of a situation, and I didn’t know how I’d get myself out.
Rose, Cal, and everyone must’ve been worried about me right now. Or had Dad made up an excuse? They’d probably report me missing if they didn’t hear from me in a few hours. They knew how stoked I was about this party. Rose had made my favorite artichoke and spinach dip as well as mozzarella sticks plus a plethora of appetizers that the other girls had requested. There was a huge cake for us, two thirds vanilla and a third chocolate because me and Mia preferred vanilla and Beth preferred chocolate. Cal had suggested three separate cakes or cupcakes with icing slathered all over to hold them all together but we were all so close we wanted the same cake. Rose had said she had our photos put on in icing. I never saw my cake. A tear slid down my cheek. Then I heard the doorknob turn and I dashed it away and held the others back. I put my lips together and stood still, back straight, took a deep breath, and waited.